Lubbock Left

I am inviting all my readers -- fans of President Obama or otherwise -- to join me at the LubbockOnline version of my blog (the one you are reading now) tomorrow night for the State of the Union Address. I will be liveblogging it as I have done in the past, and it's been really fun for everyone involved. This is one of those "the more, the merrier" situations as we all exchange commentary while the event happens. I will also stick around for Paul Ryan's rebuttal afterward and the wind-down chatter after that. I hope you'll join me.

What we have here in miniature is a problem: not enough people are taking the stairs. Right away I want to point out that the modern conservative would throw his hands up and decline to address the problem. After all, it's a matter of "personal responsibility," isn't it? People will take the stairs if they want to, end of story.

In Texas, liberals and progressives are in the worst situation (legislatively speaking) that we have seen in some time. The $27 billion budget crisis is the perfect cover for conservatives to reduce or eliminate programs they have always wanted to reduce or eliminate. Look at the first "shock and awe" budget draft released. HB1 represents a totally unbalanced approach to budgeting. It's all cuts with no attempts to raise revenue. There are huge bites into public education, kindergarten through college. Several community colleges, including two in West Texas, are slated to be closed.

In light of the discussions happening all over the USA this week, I decided to seek out an expert on civil, effective communication. I was fortunate enough to run across Meryl Runion, a recognized expert on collaborative communication and personal growth from Colorado. She is the author of seven books that have sold over 350,000 copies worldwide: Power Phrases, Perfect Phrases for Leadership Development, Perfect Phrases for Managers and Supervisors, How to Restore Sanity to Our Political Conversations, and others. It's that last title that caught my interest.

I thought we could use a place to discuss the tragic shooting that happened earlier today in Arizona.

I think today's shooting is a product of our political climate. Yes, the shooter is a crazy person first and foremost. But, at the same time, the irresponsible rhetoric used by the right in this country provides a framework for nuts like this to rationalize horrible things like firing an automatic weapon into a crowd.

If a political movement's first instinct after a tragedy like this is to scrub their websites, then that movement has a problem.

Like the often-used cry of "judicial activism," the cry of "states' rights" is an excuse to like or dislike a point of view while clothing it in a higher, "principled" calling.

The debate over "states rights" aka Federalism is not new. This debate is as old as the nation, probably older. More importantly, it doesn't break down into convenient left/right, liberal/conservative divisions.

Framing is the most important concept that the modern informed electorate needs to understand.

The words and phrases that are spoken to us by pundits, news anchors, politicians, and the like tend to be carefully chosen, focus-grouped, think-tanked WEAPONS of language that are deployed on the general public. They establish the boundaries of an issue before any debate or discussion takes place.

To make the lame duck session less lame, there are three long-delayed priorities on which the Democratic majority should focus their efforts to pass before the end of the year:

1) The DREAM Act

2) The START Treaty

3) The repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT)

These bills are all active in Congress right now, so call your representatives to urge them to do the right thing. The popular support for each of these bills is there (especially among the Democratic base), and they could be up for vote as early as today.

Thanks to a Republican filibuster in the Senate, the plan favored by the Democratic majority in Congress (and by President Obama) to let the Bush tax cuts expire for the wealthiest Americans while preserving them for the middle class has failed.